You don’t know why Rick not only had to close down his blog but erase all old posts?

Well, here is the answer:

In an unsigned final post, Rick has closed Stuck on the Palmetto in order to protect his career and future. Certainly he cannot be faulted for it. As we have pointed out repeatedly, he was in an untenable position. His blog had become a liability to him. He could save it or himself. So he killed the thing he loved. What else could he do? SotP was a log of his work, or, rather, of his dereliction of duty. Carefully noted, on every post, was the day and time it was written. This constituted an irrefutable self-indictment, prima facie evidence of his betrayal of a public trust. He has silenced and erased his blog before his malfeasance became public knowledge and he had to face the consequences. It may be too late already. Contrary to Rick’s expectations, however, his drastic action in closing his blog will call further attention to it and to him and may actually hasten his exposure…

Because it was his badge that was responsible for Rick’s undoing. The repercussions which he rightly feared would ensue from the disclosure of his activities were what finally drove Rick to this decision. Rick was anonymous for a reason. When he felt the least apprehension that he would not be able to attack all and sundry with the blogging equivalent of diplomatic immunity, he quit the show. Of course, we are all responsible in civil society for our actions. Rick didn’t see it that way. It was he who thought himself to be above the law; but, in fact, he was no better than the welfare queens he often excoriated on his blog. He took his check from the state and gave us his “mental children” in exchange. Now he has been compelled, although not by his conscience, to do the job for which he is paid. What is wrong with that? Should people with a badge be excused from work because they have the blogging bug?

Probably society would be safer with Rick as a blogger than with Rick as a cop. But the fact remains that his job description does not include blogging, and until it does he has no right to blog on the taxpayer’s dime. He recognized this when he shut down his blog and erased all traces of it. He really had no other choice.

i can’t help but wonder: if rick is really a cop, was he blogging from a squad car? is that what they do when they’re hiding behind billboards? i was a rabid fan of SoTP, as was my wife. i have to admit it will be missed.

No, Rick was blogging from behind a desk. If he had been a cop on the beat, he would have known better than to let his guard down. If you miss SotP, simply go to Google News and type “South Florida.” That’s what Rick did.

There was no basher of Cuban-Americans to equal Rick in the purity of his odium and the depth of his ignorance. We also lost White Dade this year: it would seem the bigots are hiding from their own words. Let his fellow bigots put on their widow’s weeds. I see nothing to mourn.

MAT, I think you hung that “basher” sign on Rick too gratuitously. One could say you never met a C-A you didn’t like, but that would be wrong too. Rick certainly had his moments of insensitivity (his final undoing being a case in point), but it seemed to me to be fairly spread on the ethnic spectrum, so much so at least, as to render the ethnic/racial basis coincidental. He did have a hard-on for Babalu, of course, but I think even you can sympathize with that. I think you gain more validity by objecting, after the fact, that if he is a public servant, which seems the case after Pulp’s continued non-denial denials, there may be some question as to his dereliction of duty. But even that presupposes too much, absent a full accounting from Rick, which we are neither entitled to, nor will we ever get, I suspect.

As far as I know no one “chased” Rick out of the blogosphere. No one threatened Rick or blew his cover. No one did anything to Rick but Rick. He acted in his own best interests in closing his blog. You seem unable to accept that fact. No one tarred and feathered him or drove him out on a pike. He took the night train out of town, leaving those like yourself to regret his departure and others like me to regret only that it did not come sooner.

I guess when it comes down to it, do we really want to be paying a public servant to blog all day and shirk his duties? Again, most of the blogs in the world would not exist if people weren’t doing it on office time. So who knows what the answer is.

Rick has erased all his tracks, and doubtless he had good reason to. It is useless to argue how great a basher he was when he has destroyed the public record which would have condemned or exonerated him.

Do you mean to imply that if one hates everybody it is as good as hating no one? I do not think that Rick hated everybody but he certainly hated Cuban-Americans. He was also montrously mistaken in his conceit that the Babalunians represented Cuban exiles. He took them seriously, too seriously. I never have.

We may not be entitled to a “full accounting” from Rick, but taxpayers in Florida certainly are. It was to avoid such an accounting that he folded his tent and silently stole away.

So we’ve already established you don’t know where Rick actually worked.

When did he start his day?
When did he end his day?
When were his regular days off?
How many vacation days did he get a year?
When did he use them?
How many breaks a day was he allowed?
What is his employer’s policy for using the computer?
When did he actually write his posts? Did he keep them as drafts before posting?

Before you start talking out of your ass like you are so fond of doing, don’t you think you ought to have that information straight?

Manuel: White Dade was a comedic blog, it was easily to laugh at. It was obvious White Dade was an exaggerated personality of the blogger.

And Rick didn’t hate Cuban-Americans, he hated Cuban-American hardliners like you that consider everyone’s opinion except those who advance the Cuban exile agenda wrong. Guess what? No one cares what happens to Cuba or Castro expect Cubans! I know I just blew your mind with such a revelation.

You foolish man, do you presume to tell me that “no one cares what happens to Cuba except Cubans” and expect this to be a revelation to me? And the sky is blue and the grass is green. Anything else with which you wish to “blew [my] mind?”

Are you not aware of the fact that Rick has erased all 6000 posts which were written since the inception of SotP? Why would he do that? Other blogs such as White Dade close shop but do not blow up the shop and its contents. Why did Rick feel the compulsion to do so? Because the evidence against him was in those posts: the day and time that each post was written. This is all the evidence that would be required to bring Rick up on departmental charges. SotP itself was the unofficial log of Rick’s blogging breaks, which extended from the beginning to the end of each work day. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that his blog-day was interrupted by brief non-blogging intervals otherwise known as work. It was to cover this fact that Rick “destroyed” the evidence. Rick was South Florida’s most prolific blogger. All the sick days, personal days and holidays which transpired over the last 2 years, would not have been enough to accommodate Rick’s 6000 posts, unless Rick somehow managed to string together all 800 days as authorized absences. And if he had been able to do that there would have been no reason to quit and implode his blog.

You’re wrong. At the very least, I care what happens to Cuba and Castro, and I’m sure plenty of other non-Cubans doo, too.

I don’t agree with the Babalu crowd all the time. But. Speaking of the police, Bob Norman said “It’s the one issue Rick — solid, middle American, mind-numbingly normal Rick — gets totally irrational about.” Well, he was wrong — Rick was always irrational about Cuban-American issues, too. Not that Babalu doesn’t deserve some criticism, just that Rick always took way too much relish in the criticism.

Also: “White Dade was a comedic blog, it was easily to laugh at.” Is this a good excuse for racism?

Rick, like all “bullies” could not take his own medicine. There was nothing he enjoyed more than to attack and smear the CA community on SOTP. Let’s not re-write history here, he would not let it go; he could not move on.

That’s why it’s ironic that his bigotry came out against a group he and Alex always tried to cultivate and always tried to keep on their good side (the gay community). Both Rick and Alex saw themselves as the open-minded, fair and tolerant folks waging battle against the bigoted, fundamentalist conservative hate-mongers. Except of course, when it came to those pesky Cubans in South Florida. Those were fair game.

What we saw here folks, was someone’s MELTDOWN. No one outed Rick, except Rick. Sad. I hope he takes some time and gets some help.

M.A.T.: you don’t know where he actually worked, or in what capacity; yer clueless jawin’ doesn’t do anything for your credibility. And as for the nearly 6000 posts at SotP? There was this guy ALEX there, too. He put up quite a lot of it. No as much as half. But to claim that Rick made 6000 posts is to simply tell a whopping great big LIE.

So who’s the most prolific blogger? The Florida Masochist, who posts to his blog nearly as ofen as SotP did, and does it all by himself

Basically, all we get from M.A.T. is a poor bastard who has lost his dead horse the beat, desperately trying to get us to visit his poisonous little blog.

Ms. Calabaza: Rick wasn’t much of a bully, compared to the whackos running Babalu. He had his faults, but compared to Henry and Val, he was a prince among men. And don’t forget M.A.T., who had to find someone else’s blog to get some more swipes at the corpse of SotP.

I am sorry to see SOTP vanish
and I’m distressed at the follow-up bile.
Manuel, you may believe that nobody but Cubans
cares about Cuba and Cuban Americans,
as Duran says,
but you’re mistaken, and he knows nothing.
I am not Cuban, nor are many of my friends,
but all of us care deeply,
precisely because we know so many Cubans here
with family there
and share their grief and frustration.

As for Rick, I suspect the story is larger:
I read hints of his tiring and search for an exit,
even possibly a new romantic relationship
that forced a choice.
In which case I hope he chose wisely and well.

I have not commented on Rick’s blog since February 2007. It is he who got in the habit of coming to my blog to unload his venom. In his honor I even re-posted his famous prediction that the Review of Cuban-American Blogs wouldn’t last the year. As fate would have it, however, we are still here and SotP is gone.

As for getting you to visit my “poisonous blog,” it appears that you need no invitation. My presence here all day benefitted Alesh’s blog, not mine. If Alesh spent a day blogging on RCAB, perhaps that would benefit me.

In the end Rick — this “Prince of Men” of yours — was a worse censorer and deleter than Babalú‘s Val Prieto. Rick deleted 6000 posts and 100,000+ comments. All to save his ass. Kiss it since you so admire it.

I believe that there are non-Cubans who feel genuine empathy for the plight of the Cuban people and even a nation or two which do, certainly Alesh’s native Czech Republic. But these are rare exceptions. Those who feel the least empathy for the suffering of Cubans are precisely those who should feel the most, that is, those who live among Castro’s survivors in Miami. Who will ever forget African-Americans and Klansmen marching arm-in-arm against their Cuban neighbors? It happened in South Florida and never before or again.

A keen observation on your part. Yes, it is ironic that it was a rare homophobic post that brought down this liberal blog. But why not? Homosexuality regularly brings down conservatives. Why shouldn’t homophobia bring down liberals?

Rick’s fatal error was going off the reservation, that is, attacking a group which it is not politically correct to attack. So long as he stuck to Cuban exiles he was safe. The moment he attempted to treat another group with the same contempt and vileness SotP imploded.

Manny, they were his to remove; and frankly, you don’t know if they’ve been deleted or not; I have an archive for MY blog, no reason SotP couldn’t have one. This is one more case of an arrogant man parading his ignorance as fact. It seems to be your specialty.

And you are certainly welcome to prove that I’m Rick; a waste of time, but go for it. I’m certainly not a Fort Lauderdale cop. There are very few people on the blogosphere as easily found as I am. I have flatly identified my job and my employer, and the town that I live in, as well as past positions and employers. I’m not remotely anonymous.

But it will be wicked fun watching you explain away all the heated disagreements Rick and I have had in the past. Sure, you can’t see the ones that were on SotP, but we crossed words a few places, including here.

Of course, I don’t expect you to let a few niggling things like FACTS affect your arguments.

Alesh: You are an idiot if you honestly think White Dade was a racist blog. The blog was satiricle look at life in Miami-Dade and it was painfully obvious. It was no more “racists” than Dave Chappelle imitating white people during his stand-up performance. As a Hispanic man I should definitely be offended by it and really I can find nothing offensive about it.

Manuel: I can feel no empathy for a group so driven about getting an oppressive dictator out of power, yet have no problems shutting up their critics. Hypocrisy at its worse. If the Cuban hardliners truly embraced the values of democracy and freedom of expression, they’d welcome open debate and discussion, without the fear of verbal attacks or violence.

While I can never say I’ve experience living under totalitarian rule, both my parents lived under the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo, yet fully embrace the idea of an truly open marketplace of discussion, no matter what the opinions are presented. For that, I respect them IMMENSELY.

Believe it or not, I’m not on the streets screaming “Viva Castro!” or getting pleasure out of seeing a nation oppressed, so I’m on your side when you say Castro has got to go. However, hardliners, especially those claiming to represent the entire Cuban-American community, show a lot of the same oppressive traits as the man they so arduously hate, so how can I show any empathy? With hardliners its always their way or nothing else.

And before you can tack on the same Cuban-hating label on me that you put on Rick, my disdain for what you and other hardliners represent has nothing with you being Cuban. I called many Cuban-Americans friends and they know my viewpoint on this whole issue and accept it.

I have never left a single comment on any blog which I have not first saved. Rick’s sabotage has not affected me. I am quite sure, however, that it has affected you and many others who expressed yourselves on SotP with the reasonable expectation that your words would not become compost for Rick’s ego. Consider your time there as wasted and yourself as defrauded.

Rick, incidentally, had another blog before Stuck on the Palmetto. It reached some 3500 posts before he killed it too. It seems this is his modus operandi. Don’t be fooled again.

What’s up with all this PC bullshit? Can we get an effing sense of humor back in this country? I didn’t see any nooses or crispy jews on White Dade…..Oh shit, IM A RACISTTOO for mentioning that. Too soon? I think all you PC whores are wearing underwear that is 100 sizes too small. JESUSCHRIST. Now I’m a blasphemer too. As for Cuba, open that bitch up! I need a new place to work on my tan. Shit now I’m anti everything. Oh and MAT, SCREW those gays too. For sure im going to hell.

Many crocodile tears have been shed over the death of Stuck on the Palmetto by South Florida blogs that depended on its blogroll for their survival. I say “crocodile tears” because all these blogs, small and smaller, while benefitting from SotP’s seal of approval also despised it cordially as all industry leaders are despised. What was it exactly that SotP was a purveyor of and how could one or more of these vestigial blogs replace it? That is the question which many pretenders to Rick’s mantle have been asking themselves. If you ask me, I think there is an heir apparent to SotP already. Which is?

Geez, Manny, if THIS is the blog that benefits from your presence, why do you keep linking back to your own blog? No benefit to Alesh in that.

It’s cute (but completely dishonest) how you keep saying things like Rick “sabatoged” anything by removing HISOWNBLOG. If I have something to say that I wanted to last, I put in my own blog; the comment section on other blogs belongs to the blog holder, and those comments exist at the whim of the blog’s adminstrator.

It’s time to go back to your own blog, Manny, and let Alesh to air his own thoughts on his own blog. Remember Alesh? This is HIS blog, and the idea is we comment on HIS post.

HAHAHAH for the blogroll. Wow you really are reaching for straws here. Have you ever stopped to think people who blog do it for personal pleasure and not necessarily to push an agenda like yourself? Get your head out of your ass dude. You might be an “authority” on radical cubans but not the blogosphere buddy.

MAT, playing provocateur again? You old so-and-so! Looks like Longfellow tought you a thing or two, after all. Shame on you, my friend.

Saving your posts? WTF for, Ignatius?

Sign me up as another C-A who won’t join in beating the “racist SoTP” drum. The worst I will say about Rick is that he didn’t get it sometimes, at least not without help. On on those occasions where he didn’t get it, it was up to those who didn’t automatically jump to the “final conclusion” to engage and explain the counterpoint. To throw up one’s hands and hurl the gravest slur to civil, considered, and even heated debate smacks of cowardice and a lack of mental acuity that even a thesaurus and a lifetime of reading can never cover up.

Name names MAT. Name those C-A’s who were gratuitously or otherwise unjustly criticized based on one immutable status or another, rather than on actions or positions that were validly subject to interpretation and debate. If you cannot, then do the honorable thing and reduce yourself to valid criticisms, themselves subject to interpretatioin and debate.

And remember, I have been there from the beginning. I see when you spin, even if you will not acknowledge it yourself.

As for deleting 6,000 posts and 100,000 comments, I’m sure Rick was within his rights to do so, but it sure is a “fuck you” to the people who read, commented on, and linked to his blog over the years, and disrespectful to internet protocol. Hopefully it all comes back at some point.

Duran~

You’re experiencing semantic confusion surrounding the term “satire.” Look it up, and note: you don’t take quasi-racist views, exaggerate them for a blog, and call it satire. Also, I suggest a review of the last couple of hundred years of American history if you think that African Americans making fun of American whites is morally equivalent to vice versa. I mean, are you even serious??

Manuel~

Yes, of course I’m eversograteful for your presence. I don’t have the patience jump whole-hog into reading your blog, but getting it in (comparatively) small doses here once in awhile is just peachy.

Please accept my condolences about your recent eviction from “your” blog. Maybe you should take your posts and start another. Your inaugural post can be about how it feels to have the rug pulled from under you as you continue to play Tonto to Rick’s Lone Ranger.

I never claimed not to care about Rick’s blog. In fact, I invested hundreds of (wasted) hours in it. Rick once called me “the beloved Manuel A. Tellechea, SotP’s favorite.” Of course that was when I was making his sitemeter soar to the skies. When I left his blog, Rick developed other notions about me.

Since you are so interested in my history with SotP, you may satisfy your curiosity here.

As WW points out, not all of us have an agenda, Manny. Besides, I don’t have A blog; I have several. Man Or Maniac is the eclectic one; the title alone should clue you in to that. I know what my readership is.

As for me “telling Alesh what to do,” well, that’s simply another one of your blatant lies. I haven’t told Alesh what to do with his blog; and since everyone can read every comment made here, it’s remarkably stupid of you to make the claim.

So folks, consider Manny’s posts just here in this one string of comments; add up his false claims, and consider what that says about his credibility. I’m not telling you anything beyond “add it up and make your own choice.”

Me, I’m going back to reading what ALESH has been putting up. IF I have anything further to say about Manny, INCLUDING any of the numerous lies he’s posted here, I’ll do it on my own blog. Which you can find yourselves; this is, after all, Alesh’s blog. You came here to read what HE wrote, and this space is for comments on HIS posts.

BTW, Alesh; I don’t hold you responsible for SotP shutting down. That was solely the decision of its creators. And you are still one of the blogs that I visit often, and will continue to be.

Now MATty boy knows for a fact that Alex had the rugged pulled form under him. Perhaps you should ask him if he agreed to removing SoTp instead of blowing hot air into your already inflated spinning head. Jesus dude this is why CA hardliners are so hard to take seriously. Sign me up for some of dem ESP classes dude! I wanna take it to the moderates too!

More than “good writers and thoughtful commentators” Rick and Alex had something that many don’t have in the blogosphere, and that’s sensitivity and attention to detail. We fail many times to acknowledge our commenters and to make unnecessary judgement.

Oh, yeah. There is no better way to “acknowledge our commenters” than by wiping out 100,000+ of their comments. Such “sensitivity and attention to detail” is indeed rare. Not to mention the freedom it shows from “unnecessary judgment.” I am sure that you are just as “thoughtful” to your commenters.

Oye que much-a-doodoo-about-nothing for real…
First, either all of u guys are underemployed like moi or you have the ideal job where you get paid to sit on your ass all day and unproductively dedicate your (paid) work hours to stuff unrelated to your employment. Please let me know, are they hiring?

Second, Duran, chico que bruto eres. I can only imagine that if you found whitedades bullshit hillarious you must confuse KKK rallies with comedy central’s celebrity roast no? Please do tell, is your brownosing of that Matt guy a way of shedding your dominicanness? I know some younger cubans who are rabid oppossites of hardliner conservative cubans: exactly the same but democrats, just as intransigent and fanatical. Maybe you are the dominicaino version?

Third,
Alex is Rick. Rick is Alex, end of story.

Fourth,
Am I the only one who is kinda creeped out by the fact that this Rick character had access to your information through your IP address? If anyone of you ever posted a comment contrary to his opinions, you know how the guy got all crazy and bitchy, right? Well, this dude working on law enforcement, had a lot more access to IP addresses info than the regular one that sany other blogger gets. For example, if I have a blog and someone anon-comments on it, I can trace the location (ie Miami Beach, FL) of said poster, thats about it. Maybe if I suspect an acquaintance I can check their e-mails ip and match them etc. People who work in law enforment have much more access to more specific info about the IP holder including Address name etc. I recall that Ricky guy berating commenters for leaving anon comments on his blog and in fact often made weird comments about these commenters, like “I doubt thats who you are” etc.

Fifth,
That blog was as entertaining as reading the Heralds Target pullout advertorial during a trip to the restroom, enough to pass the “time” but disposable right after.

I am surprised that you think so little of your own writings as not to be incensed that Rick wiped out thousands of your comments on SotP. I personally value them highly and even took the trouble to save some for posterity’s sake. Remember your legendary comment about the supposed “co-dependency” that existed between Alex, Alesh and me? Nobody but you could have written that. And it would have been lost except for me.

Cowardice, nonee, is when the captain not only abandons his ship but orders all the other lifeboats sunk. That is what Rick has done. No thesaurus will provide you with any euphemism that might cover(-up) such cravenness, and history shows few examples of such hubris in the annals of blogging.

I wish I could cite for you such chapter and verse of Rick’s canon of bigotry and intolerance. But guess what? He has made that impossible by torching his archives as the Romanian secret police did when the fall of Communism seemed imminent.

Be glad of the high consideration in which I hold you. Your comments from anyone else would not have received such a temperate reply.

You know, since he isn’t around anymore to defend himself you come off as a pathetic ham. You sir are a gentleman. Spouting your mouth off when the man isn’t even here to counter your arguments. Courage many man man! What sacks of titanium.

Rick is not here to defend himself because he chooses not to be here. His blog was closed because he chose to close it. Its archives were erased because he chose to erase them. He is under everybody’s miscroscope because that is where he chose to put himself. No one has done anything to Rick. He has done it all to himself. Fear clouds judgment and contributes to the downfall of men like Rick.

agreed. Rick actually told us his job title in a meme a few months after he started his blog. It was “Intelligence something-or-other” – I forgot. When I re-read this last week (before he deleted everything) my thoughts were yours exactly – I wonder how much more digging he was able to do? Not a big deal, really because no one really engaged in any criminal behavior but thought provoking nonetheless.

As for sitting around reading this, (I am semi-retired) I suggest there is definitely a vacuum out there since SotP closed shop. There is an actual community of commenters that have nowhere to go right now. The blog was a meeting place of sorts for all kinds, like the bar scene in Star Wars. For me, that’s what I miss.

Rick is not Alex and Alex is not Rick, in my opinion. They’re style of writing were completely different. I have always been impressed with Alex’s obvious education even though I rarely agreed with his vision of the world. Alex is an excellent writer.

Alesh,

I also do not understand Alex’s venom towards you. I like your blog and I particularly respect the way you don’t stir the pot or inflame the situation. However, you have let everyone have their say.

Manuel,
You are an incredibly well-educated individual and your writings are a pleasure to read. I do not to get involved in your feud with Babalu because I read both your blogs and whatever problems you have had in the past is between you folks. I wish it weren’t so because I feel both you and Val and Henry would like to see the same thing – a free Cuba. You are however, an agent provocateur and you do it well. Just look at this post.

MAT, you flatter me so. But to save my posts would keep me from any plausible deniability in defense of my virtual reputation. You’re missing the big picture again. Rick may have actually done us all a favor, but you cannot see that. Your eyes cannot see with your uvula in the way.

Seriously, though. You go on like you have some property right over the little nuggets you plop on any comment section. ‘Tis not true. It’s not so much how little I think of mine, mind you. I have a rather high opinion of my opinion. But they’re just thoughts. I can have them anytime I want, and even when I don’t. If I really felt the itch of posterity, I would write them all down. But it would take a shitload of crayons, and with the price of oil, you see where that leads. Nah, I got children. If there’s anything I gotta say that I will later regret, I will say to them. That’s posterity.

To your point on the deletion, someone said it already. Rick’s blog,Rick’s rules. I cannot agree that the deletion was an act of hubris. Rick had an arrogant streak, to be sure, which makes him no worse than anyone else around the blogosphere who offers their opinion unsolicited. BFD. He was proud of SoTP, and I have to believe that anyone who put as much time into their blog as he seems to have put would have a hard time tearing it down so completely. There must have been a compelling reason, even if only for him. But that’s the point.

Alesh: I’m not afraid of anything, save the infantile digs for your macho friends at Babalu. It’s more of a matter of disinterest in the medium. I may or not do a blog, or some other venture. In any case, anything I wrote on SotP that was of interest to me was saved.

The “venom”: as you know, I used to hold you in much higher esteem, until you saw fit to direct a condescending remark to me, completely out of context and out of character (or at least out of the character I was giving you credit for up to that point). It didn’t affect me, but it changed my opinion of you. It was especially dumb because you, like me, are an immigrant and should have known better. Afterwards, many other petty and petulant things you have written and particularly the way you have conducted yourself during this episode have only reinforced my opinion. That you are “baffled” is as laughable as the innocent act you were putting on last week.

Calabaza: you are right, the one thing that we did for the Miami blogosphere was providing a central square of sorts. It’s one of the things Rick and me lament the most. Hopefully somebody will step up and fill in the vacuum.

What a revolutionary concept! Property rights over one’s own writing! What will writers expect next? To have their works credited? To own copyright to them? Or, God forbid, to be paid for them! As I said, I had the prescience to save all my comments. If I had not, I should certainly be angry at Rick’s hubris in presuming, literally, to steal them.

My writings are lifeboats, nonee. They take readers to the shore of sanity.

MAT, being disingenuous should be so beneath you. But I am losing hope, knowing that you are serious. When you figure out how to copyright your comments, superseding the blog-owner’s rights, let me know. And my 10-year-old knows enough to ask for money in advance. What’s in your wallet?

All I see are swimmers. Some of them are wearing those little waterwings, it’s true. But didn’t they say that about the 2 Cubans who couldn’t swim, and wound up on shore just by having a conversation?

In the movies and at first glance Miami and the South Florida Metropolitan area seems like paradise, miles of white sand beaches, topless girls trendy nightlife, great shopping and lovely boutique hotels.

In reality this type of “paradise” makes up about 2% of the entire South Florida Metropolitan area which includes Miami-Dade county, Broward county and Palm Beach county. About 25% are quiet sleepy western suburbs resembling Dayton Ohio sans the nice vegetation and English speakers. The other 73% is nothing but third world slums, even in areas where aggressive building has taken place, you could walk out of your 1.2 Million dollar high rise condo, turn a corner and get mugged for your sneakers that will in turn be sold for half a crack rock.

If arriving by plane you would spend the first two hours of your stay in this “paradise” trying to figure out how to get out of the airport. You see again English is considered a foreign language here and someone who speaks it is usually not readily available to assist you. Next you will have a refreshing drive in a stuffy cab or your rental car through massive traffic at any time of the day or night… and you thought rush hour in Manhattan was bad.
While stuck in what feels like complete and utter hell trying to get to your hotel that is a whole seven miles from the airport, you realize that the fore mentioned seven mile drive has so far taken just under an hour, you check your trip odometer and realize that you have moved a mere five miles. By now your bladder is starting to hurt, didn’t your mama teach you not to drink a 64Oz. Big Gulp before you get in the car or at least go to the bathroom first?

You barely make it to the gas station to relieve your self, when asked for the key to the “Restroom” the gas station attendant who is wearing a pair of prison like safety glasses taped at the nose bridge smiles his toothless smile and responds, “No Habla Englais”. You look down to see the wet spot starting to form on the front of your pants.

You curse the moment you got off that highway, get a fresh pair of pants from your luggage and proceed to drive back to the highway to continue your, what now seems like eternal seven mile trip to your hotel.

As you approach the highway you realize that there is an on ramp to go West but the one to go East is missing! Missing? Yes missing, you can see where years ago they had planned on building it but obviously took a siesta that has now lasted twelve years. Being a smart person you realize that returning to the gas station where you pissed yourself to ask for directions is futile so you drive on thinking, “hey it’s a big flat city, I should be able to figure out where I’m going”. Mistake numero dos, numero uno being coming here in the first place.

You drive though crowded city streets that resemble what Beirut would look like if Fidel Castro was the president, you realize that the addresses around just don’t make any sense, you find your self on the corner of NW 103 St AKA W42 St. and NW79Ave. AKA W2Ave. As you look around and try to understand where the hell you are, you realize that this looks like something out of a bad B rated zombie video game that your kid plays.

After hours of frustration, both from the lack of understanding and the wonderful drivers that have cut you off, cursed at you, almost changed lanes into you and of course threw a coconut at your windshield, you somehow make it to your hotel. You dream of taking a hot bath and slipping away in to dream land where you can whisk yourself to Hawaii and lay on a nice sandy beach sipping an umbrella drink.

You walk into the lobby of your hotel and are greeted with “Hola Como Estas?”. You explain that you have a reservation and would like to get to your room as soon as possible. The hostess looks at you batting her eyes, you can almost see the wheels turning as she attempts to process what was just presented to her, her mouth slowly starts to open and…. “Pardon, no comprende. Mi Englis is a berry baad”. Naively you ask her, “How long have you been in this country”? She looks at you and after a prolonged look of confusion on her face replies, “ah si si, mi born esta en shildrens Miami Hopital”!

Born in Miami….. Yep, and yet English is a foreign language for her!

Finally one way or another you get her to look up your reservation and she gives you a key. You walk to your room and swipe the key in the card reader…. Doesn’t work, “DAMN IT” you scream as you walk back to the lobby!!!!!

Finally you enter your room, and as you take that relieved deep breath, you choke on the smell of mold, mildew and stale cigarette smoke… “Didn’t I ask for non-smoking” you think to yourself.

Later you find out that this is indeed the non-smoking room.
At this point all you want is to take a nice nap and forget about the days events, you turn down the blanket and sheet to get in bed only to discover a Palmetto bug already using that bed.

No, nonee, your words will always be your words till the moment you die and bequeath them to your 10-year old. The rights of the blog owner do not supercede your rights in respect to your literary production. You are free to post your words on a 1000 blogs and not one of the thousand could stop you from posting it on 1001. BTW, most writers don’t get money in advance. That’s reserved for celebrities (like Ted Kennedy) who nary have written one word.

I will again overlook the barbs. But I am not a man of infinite patience.

Rick had without a doubt the best News Blog is South Floirda. He showed the ridiculousness of the area without going overboard on commentary. Like a scaled-down Carl Hiaasen. The fact that people chose to cross that online/reality barrier and try to “out” him is just another example of overly sensitive people ruining a good thing. Like a toned-down Don Imus.
I for one will miss Rick and Alex. They were probably my higherst-profile allies (who were not employing me) in the Miami blog scene, and I thank them for their breaths of fresh air and common sense.

WW, let me assure you that you can delete comments made on your blog with clear conscience. Like he is about so many things, MAT is incorrect about the copyright status of blog comments.

They fall in the same category as any other correspondence: it was given to the recipient, and copyright is thus implicitly granted to the receiving party. If I send you a letter, it is obvious that I meant for you to have it. Otherwise, I would not have sent it to you. If I don’t want you to have it, I don’t send it – or post it, in this case.

When you post a comment to a blog, you are expressly giving your comment to the blog owner. You don’t surrender your copyright, but at the same time you are gifting it to the owner of the blog. After all, if you didn’t want them to have it, you wouldn’t have posted it in their comments section.

As with any copyright license, there are limits to what you can do with a comment (or a letter). You can’t present it as something you created, and you must correctly attribute authorship, and the circumstances by which you hold copyright. But you can display them, or publish them in a collection of letters.

If you want to maintain full control of your writing, don’t go giving it away. Post it on your own blog.

As much as I’d like to read other people’s thoughts and comments, I find it very difficult to wade through all of MAT’s posts. Is this all about him? Can y’all who actually care what MAT thinks go to another thread, somewhere else.

It’s not about freedom of speech, at this point. It’s a matter of etiquette. Being polite and respectful. Some people call it class.

There are other opinions out there. But I’m afraid anyone who wants to have a grown-up conversation about SOTP will tune out because MAT has made this posting all about him and his opinions, which I am beyond tired of looking at.

MAT: If I wanted to read more of your words, I’d surf to your blog. Please stop trying to be the center of attention. All you accomplish is that you come across as a cyber-bullying boor.

m.a.t. is actually an auto-response script developed by alesh for the comments section, sort of like a walmart greeter. he/it will respond to what ever comment you make, however irrelevant it is. go ahead, try it.

In the case of a letter, material possession is granted to the recipient, but not copyright to the content of the letter. If such copyright were granted, then the recipient could indeed publish the material as his own, otherwise he would not be the holder of the copyright with all rights thereto.

No is disputing that a blogger is entitled to reproduce on his blog comments sent to it. Those subsidiary rights are assigned by virtue of submitting the comment for publication. But this right is not limitless, nor can it impinge on the author’s right to the plenary use of his works.

Yes, I respond to any comment made to me. That is blog etiquette and I extend it to idiots as well. Apropos of which Miamigirl complains that I monopolize the conversation because most commenters choose to address their comments to me. She is welcome to visit my blog, but having failed to understand me here, I can hardly see how she would make sense of me there. She can be sure, however, that she will be treated with upmost consideration here or there, which is obviously something she is not used to.

To return the conversation to Rick, where I wish it would remain, Bob Norman, whom some credit with the providential destruction of SotP, has finally had his say about it. He regrets it and disclaims all responsibility for it. In the end, Rick has been able to keep his precious anonymity while Bob Norman has had his name unfairly tarnished.

That’s three fucking comments in a row. Is there some reason they couldn’t all have been combined into one? Quit bogarting the fucking thread, dude.

CL Jahn~

FWIW, you own the copyright on comments you post on others’ blogs. Yes I can delete your comments from CM, but I could not, say, re-publish them in a book without obtaining your permission. It’s wacky, but it’s true.

One thing I can certainly put to rest is the idea that Rick is Alex. I have known Alex for close to 10 years, we worked together for most of that time. Despite the fact that I disagree with him on many things, Alex is very close friend. And he’s not Rick.

And that’s two “fuckings” in one single comment, dude, and within the span of 25 words. What’s wrong? Isn’t everything peachy with you? You couldn’t find the words to answer Alex’s last post and you are venting? And what the hell is “bogarting?” Did Rick’s ghost take possession of you? Or did you become an asshole overnight and I missed it?

Congratulations on your mention in The Miami Herald story on Rick. Since RCAB is not based in South Florida, I did not expect it to be cited as a local blog. I will note, however, that Critical Miami was not mentioned in the article or linked on The Herald website though it is a South Florida blog, which probably accounts for Alesh’s outburst this morning.

I was a little grumpy this morning. Still am, actually. Sorry about the language…

I must have missed Alex’s comment before…. so there it is: you’re either on Alex’s good side or on his bad side, and once you’ve made it to the latter there’s no going back. At least that’s cleared up. (I’m not sure what incident specifically he’s referring to, but I’m sure I’ve crossed the line from time to time.)

The decision to shut down Stuck on the Palmetto and erase its contents was meanspirited on many counts. It was an affront to its readers and commenters and showed in what contempt Rick always held them. But, more than that, it was a personal betrayal of Alex. Rick could have walked away from SotP and left the blog to Alex. After all, Rick’s conflict of interests did not touch Alex. There was no reason why Alex could not have continued the blog sans Rick. It was the most popular local blog in South Florida, which owed its success in part and most of its relevance to Alex. Why was he denied ultimately his part in its success but forced to share with Rick the ignominy of its end? I suppose the simple answer is that it was never Alex’s blog. Rick unilaterally made all the decisions, and it was he who decided, without even consulting Alex, to kill the blog. Alex was not even accorded the simple courtesy of saying good-bye to his readers. Rick had the first say and the last…

Well. That’s new. I had thought it was a joint decision. Alex? If you are out there and interested, you are more than welcome to an account at Colonics handling the local beat and whatever else you want until you decide what you want to do with the rest of your blog life. My audience is mostly women (romance novelists, etc) and Florida Keys freaks but I’m more than happy to add the lunatic fringe of Miami. ;-) I promise never to shut you down or out you.

Thanks Ferfe. Pay no attention to Manuelito’s feverish conjectures and fabrications. He’s just baiting me into comment in one of the zillion posts he has dedicated to SotP in his otherwise unread blog. Getting a bit of my attention has always brightened his day. As to your offer, much honored. I’m out of blogging for the time being (lots of work and then vacation) but come 2008, who knows?

@Alesh: I don’t have any “sides”. My opinion of your character changed, that’s all. That was clear on the comment.

You are a proud man. Too proud ever to admit how you were conned by Rick. You prefer to continue playing the “yes man” rather than have the world know how badly you were used by one who should have appreciated your loyalty and reciprocated it. But anyone who analyzes your part (or lack thereof) in the dissolution of SotP cannot but conclude that you were evicted from “your” blog, thrown into the pyre along with 6000 posts and 100,000 comments. My humble blog, read by hundreds every day (including you), has somehow managed to survive SotP despite Rick’s recent prediction that it was doomed. I have re-posted his prediction as prove of the prescience that never failed him. Do not be so quick to turn down Ferfe’s offer. You seem to be predisposed to exercise the role of second banana, and you might as well be Ferfe’s Number 2 as Rick’s. There will be many more posts about you at RCAB.. Except one in particular. Because I, at least, can keep a trust. Too bad your friend Rick couldn’t.

i think SoTP will be missed more by its critics than by its followers. most local blogs (this one included) often posted as a response or complement to a post from SoTP. one could argue that the posts were sometimes less important than the comments. i mean, take this post as an example.

alesh: thanks for sacrificing your anonymity for the sake of critical miami. in a sense, critical miami has assumed your identity and not the other way around.

All is not lost. Just go to http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://stuckonthepalmetto.blogspot.com/ for past archives of LotP and don’t forget to visit http://americandrumslinger.blogspot.com, another fine, although nsfw south Florida blog.

Yo. I’d give Alex admin rights and hand it over if I decided to quit blogging. AND he would be covering topics I seldom, if ever, touch. It was/is a genuine offer on an equal field from one blogger in a non-competing section of the blog-o-sphere to another. If anything, based on estimated stats, I’d say Alex would probably take over just on popularity alone.

I am one of only two bloggers that I know of in the Keys. There ain’t that much going on down here that is fit to report online.

Sometimes it’s just nice to mix it up for a change of pace. After a blog drama like this recent one, I’ve found that it helps to jump ship from one section of the blog-o-sphere and hang out with another. In my case I parked Colonics for the Holidays and have been surfing the Miami Blogs for a change of pace. Alex might enjoy shifting over to Romance Writer-landia & The Keys – my usual haunts. I know my regulars would enjoy having a guy around even if it’s just for a little while ;-)

Manuel – I had missed your response to me and all I have to say is “thanks for the laugh”. I guess I would not know how to value anonymity because I have no need for it, on the contrary….my blogging strategy is to put it out there and be as open as possible.

Ferfe, the hostility goes back a long time. I’d guess birth. My only advice would be not to indulge the guy, otherwise he becomes parasitic as Alesh is finding out. Romance novelists sounds like a fantastic audience. Maybe I’ll pop over from time to time?

I see that you are no longer denying your rupture with Rick. Now that was fast; in the old days at SotP it would sometimes take hundreds of exchanges between us before you backed down, but you always did. In a way you must be glad that Rick erased all the posts and threads and with it the record of your perpetual humiliation at my hands. “Parasitic,” you say? Your erstwhile buddy Rick used to call me “the beloved Manuel A. Tellechea, SotP’s favorite” in recognition of the fact that it was during my tenure at your blog that it took off. You do remember, don’t you? The obliteration of your blog hasn’t obliterated your memory, has it? Alesh has apologized to me here for expressing a sentiment which you expressed a thousand times without apology. I guess that the apprehension of sounding like you and Rick was admonition enough. I don’t know what Alesh was supposed to have said to you that wounded you to the quick and made you think less of him. Whatever it was, I am sure you are blowing it out of proportion with your usual melodramatic mien. Of course there is no way to vindicate Alesh because Rick destroyed the archives, and you, of course, couldn’t stop him because, as things turned out, you were the real parasite on Rick’s blog and he swatted you away without a second thought. You know what? Maybe I do pity you after all.

Hey Henry…what say you now that Max Lesnik and your Val are on the same page (both cutting down Mr. Sabadaso)? The cliche is true…the extreme right and the extreme left are close enough to lick each other with little mean tongues.

Jeje, pushed a button, didn’t I? Always so predictable, Manuelito. Let’s cool you down with a task: what Alesh wrote, he wrote it here at Critical Miami. Go find it. That should keep you busy tomorrow.

As usual, you cannot refute anything I write. And now, having been robbed by Rick, like everybody else, of the SotP archives as a reference point, you have no defense whatever. I am sure that you cannot even remember what Alesh said to you that so offended you; certainly you can’t quote it word for word. Here, at Critical Miami, the record remains unaltered, so I can certainly reference Alesh’s rude remarks as well as his apology. We are among civilized people here who do not suppress discourse. You and Rick were the Huns of the South Florida blogosphere and have proved it.

Oh, and by the way, Alex, Alesh is being the quintessential good American host by letting me feed off his blog traffic. He can be manipulated by my transparent praises and even has gone one step further and asked for my forgiveness. It’s sad but he knows where his bread is buttered and wishes me no ill will. It’s something that you and Rick refused to recognize and humor me with and you both suffered the obvious consequences.

Always remember, I am the one that calls the shots. I am the one that can make anyone do what I want them to do. I am the one who enriches the world with my knowledge.

Mother Earth, and all who reside on this planet, are my bitches. You heard it here first.

I would ask you Alesh, oh noble Checzh, to remove the comments above as it obviously was written by an imposter seeking to besmirch my good name. For it not only contains unthinkable grammatical errors and inaccurate historical analogies, it also untimely announces the purpose of the “Review of the review of the complete works of Manuel A. Tellechea, every word He has ever written and every word ever written about Him”, a blog that I’m preparing with the help of my faithful Vana and that will no doubt constitute the Ultima Thule of the blogosphere and the sum of human knowledge. I’m delaying its debut to give you or Steve the opportunity to take advantage of my secret formula for blogging success, but time is passing and if you don’t avail yourselves of the opportunity, I will be forced to step in.

N.B.: Needless to say, comments 111 and 112 were not written by me, but by a parodist. I suppose I should be flattered because I have my own personal parodist. He’s not too bad at it either. A great model calls forth his best efforts.

The Herald has had registration enabled for over two years now and certain articles required you to be registered to read them. It has nothing to do with their ongoing comment moderation hell. They collect data for ad demographics. I don’t think they are interested or sophisticated enough to track much else.

The story of SotP is actually bigger now than it was when it first broke. And what is worse, it is still an incomplete story. Only when Rick’s identity is revealed can it finally be put to bed. The conclusion which Rick tried so desperately to avoid will come nonetheless and sooner than if he had merely ignored Bob Norman’s harmless insinuation. We suppose that Bob and his editors are in conference right now, spurred by The Herald story. Will New Times let the scoop slip between their fingers or name names? Rick has placed the onus on them. So have many others. Since Bob has already been accused and convicted in some venues of outing Rick, he might as well go for the glory if he’s going to get the obloquy anyway.

Given the publicity that The Herald story has generated thus far, Rick’s boss would have to be the world’s dumbest if he hasn’t put two and two together yet. The fact that Rick has gotten away with doocing for years, at SotP and on his old blog, which reached 3500 posts before Rick killed it too, would seem to indicate that his boss must himself have been engaged in some extracurricular activity of his own to have missed Rick’s protracted dereliction of duty encompassing thousands of individual acts. Unless Rick has no responsibilities at all at his workpace, it is likely that the job which he didn’t do during the day he performed after regular hours for overtime pay. What would that make him? A double-doocer? No, it doesn’t look good for Rick, and the story that the newspapers may actually report is the news of his firing. If that is all that befalls him, Rick might have cause to be grateful.

But there is, of course, the question of restitution, not to mention fines, which may just be waived, however, because of the magnitude of the restitution.

One would have thought that given his present circumstances Rick would be through with blogging for the forseeable future. But we doubt it. We see him writing desperate replies to his enemies which he will post one day when this is all over. But it’s not going to be over for a long time. And the next thing that Rick may have to post is bail.

Blogging at work is doocing whether you are caught or not. Being found out only brings on the consequences (e.g. demotion, loss of benefits, termination) but the act occurs whether the offender is caught or not, as with any other crime. A thief is a thief not because he is caught but because he steals.

As I explained already this story will only expire when it is reported completely. That has not happened yet but will happen soon.

The fact that I may or may not use my real name to sign my works of art is immaterial to the conversation. I have always given my full name, even if it may not be my real one. Rick has only used his first name.

Let me understand this. You are not using your real name, but because you use a first, last and initial — fake though they may be — you are a better blogger than Rick? Have you any idea how crazy that sounds? And, quite frankly, if Alex comes with you as a stalker — I hate to say it — but the blog offer comes off the table.

<i>Sorry, Alex. I barely got to know you, but … it’s over. I’m good with weird, odd, possibly not of the human race, but I have to draw the line at genuinely creepy and certifiably insane. </i>

M.A.T. If your blog is actually getting the hits you claim, check the IP origins. I’ll bet they all trace back to somewhere near D.C. in a computer vault containing servers set up to crawl your blog hourly for signs that you have finaly snapped and are about to take out a medium sized neighborhood in your search for Alex and Rick.

The very fact that you would make even vague threats against someone you suspect works for some Intel branch of the U.S. Govt boggles the mind. That’s a felony in case you are too far gone to understand how that works. Stalk an ordinary person, make menacing statements and, at best, you will find yourself slapped with a restraining order and possibly a lawsuit. Screw with a Federal Agent and you will find yourelf on a “Cavity Smuggler” watch list, subject to an IRS audit that never ends and begging for jail time just to get one moment of unmonitored peace and quiet.

Sorry. I just spent an hour and ten minutes trapped on the Dolphin crawling between 2nd street and Red Road (Hey 18-wheelers, riding up the ass of a Miata and rev’ing the engine is not a cool way to pass time in a traffic jam — asshats) followed by another two hours of the commute home. I need a glass of wine or something before I read MATsanity comments or else I can’t be held responsible for my response.

Since many of you appear to have very limited powers of discernment, let me point out that comment #133 is by the anti-Tellechea (used in the same sense as “anti-pope”). BB seems to have been taken-in by him and even praised something he said. He should know better.

For Chill’s information, SotP was at least a half-Cuban blog, since Alex is of Cuban-origin, a fact which he highlighted in most of his posts. Rick was simply obsessed with Cuban-Americans and most of his “serious” posts, especially in the last year, were about them. This is why SotP fell within the purview of the Review of Cuban-American Blogs. At one point Alex even thanked me for extending full Cuban status to Rick’s blog.

Chill’s other inanities, which were also posted on my blog, have been answered there.

As for Ferfe, I have never suggested that Rick works for Intel. You are thinking of someone else, although I have no doubt that my website is monitored by the government due to its anti-Castro content, as are all anti-Castro blogs.

I will suggest to her that she consider changing the name of her site to: “Stuck on the Red Road.” It may get her all kinds of residual traffic.

alesh says “Also: “White Dade was a comedic blog, it was easily to laugh at.” Is this a good excuse for racism?”

Umm, yes? Mencia, Chappelle, Rock, Murphy, Lopez, Cheech and Chong, SNL, South Park, and even the 3 Stooges and Cantinflas (even TOM and JERRY and BUGSBUNNY) all had racial, religious, sexual, cultural, gender-bending, and just plain STUPID humor on them. I never read White Dade, but if it was done for humor, then perhaps it was just fine. If you try to PRETEND that you didn’t get Rick’s joke, then you are being disingenuous.

To say you want to know where a guy works, when he obviously doesn’t want you to know, is what he meant by “piling on”. And after reading this MAT guy who seems to have a hate-on for Rick, I can see why he would want to maintain his privacy.

I, who do know the real identities of Rick and Alex, and did not obtain that information from either of them, have not outed them. That is a level of integrity that you cannot even begin to understand. Even with those who have proclaimed themselves my enemies and acted the part as well, I am always a gentleman, which is what makes me better than they are.

“I, who do know the real identities of Rick and Alex, and did not obtain that information from either of them, have not outed them.”
I never said that you did. However, just the fact that you admittedly sought out their full information, not from them but from other sources, shows that they did have good reason to remain anonymous.

“That is a level of integrity that you cannot even begin to understand.” Asking information about people behind their back might have a purpose if you were a private detective seeking a murderer, but you were just seeking to circumvent their anonymous status on a web page. I understand that level of integrity, and it is a pretty low level, IMO.

“Even with those who have proclaimed themselves my enemies and acted the part as well, I am always a gentleman, which is what makes me better than they are.” “Pride goeth before a fall.” They are your enemies, so “they” automatically are not gentlemen? They are your enemies, so you are automatically better than them? They are your enemies, and do not even realize it, but they made your “list”? How very Hitlerian and Nixonian of you.

Of course, by being an outsider that has criticised you, I have also made “the list”, but since I will not be at the Rick or Babaloo level, I figure I am near the bottom of the list. It will take you a few years before you get around to revenging yourself on my poor person.

Thanks. I’m not very technical. Perhaps you’ve noticed, since migrating to the new Blogger iteration, I still haven’t put my sidebar links back up, because they’ve introduced a new way of posting those links. I like to group my links and don’t have enough confidence yet to try to do the grouping with the new method.

So, first the sidebar links… and, if all goes ok, I shall consider it, although I am worried that freakzoids or crazies might post and I won’t have time or wherewithall to moderate.

Cyberstalking is the use of the Internet or other electronic means to stalk someone.

It has been defined as the use of information and communications technology, particularly the Internet, by an individual or group of individuals, to harass another individual, group of individuals, or organization. The behavior includes false accusations, monitoring, the transmission of threats, identity theft, damage to data or equipment, the solicitation of minors for sexual purposes, and any form of aggression. The harassment must be such that a reasonable person, in possession of the same information, would regard it as sufficient to cause another reasonable person distress.

Furthermore…

> False accusations. Many cyberstalkers try to damage the reputation of their victim and turn other people against them. They post false information about them on websites. They may set up their own websites for this purpose. They post allegations about the victim to newsgroups and chat rooms.

> Attempts to gather information about the victim. Cyberstalkers may approach their victim’s friends, family and work colleagues to obtain personal information. They may advertise for information on the Internet, or hire a private detective.

> Encouraging others to harass the victim. Many cyberstalkers try to involve third parties in the harassment. They may claim the victim has harmed the stalker or his family in some way, or may post the victim’s name and telephone number in order to encourage others to join the pursuit.

Anyone who has been following this thing closely and knows what Manuel Tellechea has written, not only here, but at The Pulp, Carlos Miller’s blog and his own blog, knows that if Manuel Tellechea hasn’t met the definition of cyber-stalking yet, he’s real, real, real close.

You are reading Critical Miami — commentary about culture, politics, and hedonistic pursuits in our city, written by Alesh Houdek. See about for more info or e-mail suggestions or questions.
This site is published under a Creative Commons License.